Elisabeth DeMarse is a businesswoman. She is a former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of
TheStreet.com
''TheStreet'' is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by B ...
. As of 2022 she is a board member of the NYC based ad-fraud prevention and marketing company Kubient inc.
Early life and education
DeMarse grew up in
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
and graduated from Charlotte Country Day School. She received her A.B. from
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
and her MBA from
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
.
Her father, Samuel Cummings Hair, ran Interstate Advertising, an outdoor and airport display company in North Carolina. Her mother, Liz Hair, was Chairman of the Board of Commissioners for Mecklenburg County. At age 15, she founded an alternative newspaper, The Naked Truth,
and was editor of The Country Day Monitor.
Career
DeMarse began her career in politics by serving on the Senate Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (aka
The Watergate Committee) and then as an aide to Congressman
Edward I. Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayo ...
.
DeMarse went with Koch to New York’s City Hall when he became Mayor. Koch named DeMarse to a four-year term on the New York Commission on the Status of Women in 1985.
Bloomberg, L.P.
After graduating from Harvard Business School, DeMarse became assistant to Robert Flanagan, CEO of
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
. In 1988, she joined
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
's new company as head of marketing. While at Bloomberg, DeMarse launched 8 businesses, including Bloomberg.com. She launched the Bloomberg series of cartoon books with The New Yorker magazine. While serving at Bloomberg, DeMarse compiled ''
Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg'' a collection of aphorisms and sayings by the company's founder.
Bankrate, Inc.
While at Bloomberg, DeMarse created and ran Bloomberg Personal Finance, then termed “Personal Wealth.” In 2000, she was recruited by former
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
publisher Jeff Cunningham to run iLife. At that time, iLife was in financial trouble and ranked #7 on the March 2000 Barron’s “Burn Rate” list. Two quarters later, ad revenues had increased, and the company's cash flow returned to break-even levels. The stock price rose from $0.18 to $26 per share. She re-branded the company as
Bankrate.com.
In 2000 Bankrate's unique visitors grew from 700,000 to 5 million. In 2004, four years after becoming CEO of the near-bankrupt company, Bankrate reported $14 million in net income. On November 1, 2001 DeMarse testified before Congress on the impact of
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
on credit card billing of the consumer. 9/11 disrupted mail flow across the eastern United States, and millions of consumers were affected by unfair late fees. DeMarse testified regarding the unfairness of consumer late fees brought about by the events of 9/11 before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Subsequently, some issuers, notably Capital One, cancelled their late fees.
President and CEO, DeMarseCo
In 2006, she founded
DeMarseCo in partnership with venture capitalist,
Austin Ventures
Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus o ...
. DeMarseCo acquired multiple tech companies including: ClickSuccess, Freedom Marketing and All Star Directories.
President and CEO, CreditCards.com
DeMarse became president and CEO of CreditCards.com. Under DeMarse's leadership, the company was twice named to the Inc. 500, and as a recipient of the Association for Corporate Growth award. She received the Working Mother of the Year award in 2008. CreditCards.com was acquired Bankrate in 2010.
CEO, Newser.com
On October 17, 2010, after the sale of
Creditcards.com to
Bankrate
Bankrate, LLC is a consumer financial services company based in New York City. Bankrate.com, perhaps its best-known brand, is a personal finance website. As of November 8, 2017, it became a subsidiary of Red Ventures through an acquisition.
Hist ...
, it was announced that DeMarse would undertake the role as CEO of
Newser
Newser is an American news aggregation website. It was founded in 2007 by journalist/media pundit Michael Wolff and businessman Patrick Spain, the former CEO of HighBeam Research and Hoover's.
Newser's president and editor-in-chief is Kate Sea ...
, an internet news publisher listed at the #25 most influential internet publication by
OMMA
''Omma'' is a genus of beetles in the family Ommatidae. ''Omma'' is an example of a living fossil. The oldest species known, ''O. liassicum'', lived during the final stage of the Triassic (Rhaetian), over 200 million years ago, though the placeme ...
.
On February 28, 2011, Andrew Ross Sorkin disclosed that Newser’s pending acquisition of
Salon.com
''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events.
Content and coverage
''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
had failed.
Chairman, President and CEO, TheStreet, Inc.
On March 7, 2012
TheStreet.com
''TheStreet'' is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by B ...
announced that DeMarse was hired as CEO and president, replacing outgoing CEO Daryl Otte, effective immediately.
She was named Chairman April 16, 2012. On September 12, 2012, TheStreet acquired The Deal, LLC. On April 22, 2013, TheStreet acquired three properties from DealFlow Media; The DealFlow Report, The Life Settlements Report and the PrivateRaise database.
Philanthropies
DeMarse has been active in numerous philanthropic and non-profit endeavors. DeMarse contributed to The
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company for twenty years, serving as secretary, treasurer and ultimately President of the Board.
Public company boards
DeMarse has been a board member of
Edgar Online, YP Corporation, InsWeb Corporation, Heska Corporation, Internet Patents Corporation,
Incredimail.com, and Stockgroup. She is currently a board member of
Kubient Inc.
Note
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demarse, Elisabeth
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Businesspeople from Charlotte, North Carolina
Harvard Business School alumni
American women in business
Wellesley College alumni
21st-century American women